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Monday, July 14, 2008

A Parable - of sorts

When I first began blogging I made a personal vow not to post recipes, nor to disclose any of the "seekrit" family recipes. Including Plum Guck.

And I'm not really breaking it.

Because I have been gimpy after the unfortunate incident of the collapsible dear little green garden bench and have found it painful to stand for any length of time, my husband thought to relieve my guilt over a succession of quicky meals with deli treats.

It's the tart white dressing that most confounds me in my deconstruction.

The dressing may derive from a thin mayonnaise base, but I am uncertain.

(I suspect this delicious uncertainty will last the entire summer.)

My exercise in reverse engineering of a deceptively simple product reflects to a degree the difficulties in pin-pointing just what elusive ingredients combine to make a successful novel and which savour makes some stories addictive.

If you send me a sample--say a gallon?--I am certain that I can sleuth out the secret ingredient, heehee! However, I would bet on a mayonnaise base with tarragon is a likely candidate. Sometimes people adda bit of cumin or curry, but that is probably unlikely or you'd have guessed that yourself.

I love potato salad with eggs! That sounds good. Hope you are feeling better! Sorry to hear you have been injured. Having finally got my husband semi-mobile again, I know how frustrating it can be. Here's to fast and full recovery!

Deconstructing what makes a novel enjoyable to read is an intriguing endeavor. With some authors, the ingredients can be reused as a recipe many times, while others can never join the mix profitably again.

I think I'm one of the only people alive wo doesn't like potato salad; I don't like celery and I don't like mayo, so... My Mom used to use mayo and mustard, though, and hers always brought raves.

And funny, last night I attempted to recreate the Olive Garden's pasta e fagioli soup. It turned out okay, really, except British beef doesn't taste near as good as American, I had to use cannelini beans instead of Great Northern, and the spaghetti sauce I used isn't, of course, the kind we would use in the States. Oh, and no dittalini pasta. Still, it was pretty good. We were pleased overall.

My mom made potato salad with mashed potatoes, not diced. And with pickle relish and eggs and mustard and mayo. Nobody else I've ever known makes it that way, and people look at me like I've got two heads when I suggest it.

This reminds me. We were out eating last night and I told Lana how good the sauce was and how I wished I could make it at home. She said, "well what's in it? Can you taste it?" And I was completely bamboozled. That's not a talent I have. It's either good or bad. No reverse engineering for me.

December, I have no idea what the celery is doing in the potato salad anyway. :) You won't find that here, though we have tons of variants, with or without eggs, pickled cucumber or fresh cucumber, leek or onions, with ham, with raisins ... and warm as well as cold variants. You can make the salad with an oil and vinegar (and herbs, or mustard, if you like that) dressing instead. For the warm variant, add a bit finely chopped bacon.

Bernita, the dressing sounds like Miracel Whip which is becoming an increasingly popular replacement for mayo here. It's a mix of mayo and créme légère or yoghurt.

In a collection of essays, called THE ELEVENTH DRAFT, I was so intrigued by Ethan Canin's description of hand copying John Cheever short stories and finding the experience career changing that I've been tempted to do the same thing just to see what happens...

If only we could deconstruct and analyse what makes some writers shine. I spent long minutes doing just that with a particular tome at the weekend and then deciding it was a bit of a pointless exercise as I knew what I had to do to get my manuscript up to scratch!

Olive oil and ground black pepper does it for me with most foods...except icecream...

I've had potato salad the way Robyn mentions. You can get half-mashed with really soft boiled chunky potatoes that smoosh up when you stir. Also, pickle relish, mayo, eggs, mustard are all common. I use all those, celery seed and no pickle relish as I find that nasty, lol. And mine generally is pretty mashed. I also leave the peels on.

Jon, an old Sicilian gentleman once told me about homemade bread brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with black pepper and lightly toasted in the oven. Delicious.

Raine, if I knew I'd tell you.It developed slowly and rather astonished me, considering how post-Luddite and techno-stupid I am. I still scrawl hand-written notes, but find continuous composition easier on screen now.

I got my recipie from an Italian Orthodox Priest- oh, man could he cook! This is pretty good-use real Mayo, (Not Miricle Whip or "salad Dressing) and add Olive oil, and thin with a little milk- you can use non-fat milk to make up for the Cals in the Mayo and Olive Oil. Over the years I find I'm using more Olive Oil and less Mayo. I use olives, sweet onion- like Vadalia, and in the summer fresh cucumber.

We have to try! :-)I like your reverse engineering ideas, Bernita, for any recipes... The most intriguing are the ones that don't reveal their mysteries easily.I'm sorry you've been injured. Get well fast! :-)